


Fins | A Klance Mermaid AU

by aaaadashi



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Lance realizes that he most certainly isn't straight, M/M, Pining Lance (Voltron), Slow burn Klance, mermaid au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-31
Updated: 2017-12-31
Packaged: 2018-12-09 09:00:23
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 13,142
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11665890
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aaaadashi/pseuds/aaaadashi
Summary: On the hunt for his missing brother, Keith finds himself in the midst of a bloodthirsty group of storm spirits. The storm spirits throw Keith to his death in the depths of the ocean where he finds himself rescued by a merman named Lance and turned into a merman himself. Keith is impatient to leave and get back to the search for Shiro, simultaneously trying to find a way to make himself human again. However, Keith finds that the more time he spends in the ocean, the less he wants to leave.Note: This story is also posted on my Wattpad under the same name. I will post updates on there first as that is my primary account.





	1. Chapter 1

Keith Kogane loved to sail. With the wind in his hair, the smell of the sea in his nose and the feel of the sea spray on his face, it was almost as if he was in the ocean without having to touch the water. At sea, Keith was free, bound to nobody but himself and free to follow whichever rules he chose. He navigated by the stars at night and the sun during the day, pulling ropes and adjusting the sails with perfection. Guided by the fire blazing under his skin, Keith need never even check a compass to see if his boat was on track. He only need trust in his genes and the hope that the fire in his blood still burned in his brother.

Five years ago, Tashiki Shirogane had disappeared on a mission for the naval forces of the Garrison. The navy had looked for him for a year before proclaiming him dead and giving his family medals of honor to consolidate them for his loss, paying no heed to the cries of Tashiki's little brother who had sworn that Shiro was still alive and that Keith could feel their connection still alive beneath the surface of his skin. Angry and humiliated by the disbelieval of the Garrison officials, Keith dropped out and struck out on his own to find his brother, vowing to either find Shiro or to die trying. The two brothers had human father, but they did not know who their mother was, only that she was a being of magic, because she left them both with a fire in their veins that connected them to each other. This fire, the only connection that the two boys had to their mother, was what Keith was using to track down Shiro.

Keith was getting close to his brother and he could feel it, the fire inside him was raging even more furiously than normal, a sure sign that his brother was in the vicinity. The fire began to pull at Keith's body furiously, as if wanting to fly him to his brother's location and Keith worked furiously to point the boat where the fire was telling him to go. With a sinking heart, he realized that the fire wanted him to sail straight into the undulating mass of storm clouds located on the horizon. 

Keith knew to avoid storms, he had heard tales of sailors and even large navy vessels going into a mass of clouds and never coming out. Keith knew that storms were always composed of a mass of Galran spirits; the malicious deities that took the form of storm clouds, lightning bolts and thunder claps. The Galra were ruthless and wouldn't cease to drown anyone who came into their midst and, even worse, to capture seamen who seemed interesting and experiment on them. 

With dreadful certainty, Keith knew that Shiro was in the center of that storm, most likely being tortured by the Galrans. Keith had heard tales of those who had escaped Galran clutches and come out irreversibly altered. The thought of any of those outcomes happening to Shiro made him shiver, but he knew he had to try to rescue his brother. His will steeled, Keith turned his boat  towards the storm and began to race into the heart of the maelstrom. 

He thought he heard the wind laughing in his ear, egging him on and he listened to it, knowing that the storm was where shirt was, and therefore where he needed to be. As his little schooner drew closer to the storm, Keith could've sworn he heard voices yelling at him to stop and turn back. He felt underwater resistance to his ship's course and looked over the sides to see webbed and humanoid hands slapping against the hull. If he had been in his right mind, Keith may have heeded the advice of the faceless hands, but he was so close to seeing shirt again that he merely took up an oar and slapped the hands away, earning himself curses and insults from unseen voices. 

As Keith entered the storm, his hair began to whip in the wind, stinging his cheeks and eyes. Before his eyes, the clouds seemed to morph into horrifying shapes. Keith saw faces with large fangs and yellow eyes and cages in which prisoners struggled to free themselves. Keith felt himself begin to glow with the fire and he saw a figure in a cage a few yards off doing the same. "Shiro!" Keith's scream ripped itself from his throat and carried through the Galra to Shiro, who turned to his little brother with a look of dismay on his face.

"Keith," he shouted. "Keith get out of here!" It was only then that Keith realized that Shiro had a prosthetic arm and a shock of white in his pitch black hair.

"I'm not leaving you locked up in this place, Shiro!" Keith began to race towards his brother, his ship buffeted from all sides by the wind. 

Suddenly, a cloud hovered down and materialized into a tall purple figure on the deck of the ship. "Not so fast little fireling." The Cloud Galra sneered at Keith, exposing sharp yellowed fangs that sparked like lightning, glowing yellow eyes narrowed in contempt. Keith pulled out his sword and swung at the Galra, the blade passing right through his smoky body, causing him to laugh maliciously. "Now, now fireling, lets not get feisty." He flicked Keith's sword out of his hand and into the sark water with just a wave of his hand. "We can't let you reconnect with your brother and unleash your combined power on all of us, now can we? And of course, we don't need you to experiment on, we've already used your brother, and we can't have more than one living reminder of the traitor who spawned you." The Galra laughed again echoed by other spirits in the storm as a giant hand emerged from the cloud and picked Keith up by the collar of his jacket. "I'm sorry little fireling," the Galra on the ship gave Keith a look of fake pity. "But I'm afraid we'll just have to drown you."

With that, Keith was thrown down into the ocean, hearing only Shiro's scream of rage before he hit the water and sank beneath the waves, feeling the fire within himself being slowly doused. As Keith began to loose consciousness, he felt a strong pair of arms wrap around his body and drag him into the depths before he passed into blackness, knowing that it was the end for him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all so much for reading the first chapter of this book. I hope to get another update done soon.


	2. Chapter 2

"Do you think he'll be alright?"

"I'm not sure, being thrown into the sea as a fireling isn't exactly healthy."

"Wait, look! He's waking up!"

"Oh good, I'll go get the vial."

Keith cracked open his eyes at the sound of the voices around him, oddly distorted as if coming to him across a lake. As his view came into focus, he saw a tall, tan boy hovering above him. With a blush that he couldn't control, Keith realized that the boy was squeezing his hand, and, even worse, that the boy was shirtless. "Let go of me!" Keith insisted, pushing the startled boy away, or at least trying to, before realizing that he was under water and could not move as quickly as he could have had be been above water. With the realization that he was under water, came the realization that Keith was not dead and, even weirder that he was breathing. Keith gasped, and looked down at his legs, but where they should have been sat a glimmering red tail attached to his body. He gave a double take, realizing that, since he was topless as well, his breasts should be exposed seeing as he didn't feel the right press of his binder. However, looking down at himself, Keith found that he had the flat chest of a man, causing elation to flare up inside of him. "Who are you?" Keith sputtered dizzy with happiness, sitting up forcefully, causing his head to throb.

The tall boy laughed, flicking Keith playfully with his long, blue tail, although a hint of concern still glinted in his eyes. "Easy there buddy. I'm Lance, and, in case you somehow don't get this, I saved your life, so you may want to be thanking me instead of attempting to attack me."

Keith was indignant. "You saved me? Excuse me sir, but I'll have you know that I have fire in my blood that puts me in excruciating pain for being under water."

Lance laughed. "You don't seem to be in any pain right now, fireling, so why don't you stop throwing insults at me and consider why." He leaned back with a satisfied smirk.

Keith gasped, searching inside himself for the fire that usually burned white hot under his skin, now seemingly gone. He finally located the tiniest flame still burning in his heart, but the fire that usually roared wildly through his veins seemed all but gone. Keith snarled furiously at the loss of connection to his brother. "You took it from me," he growled, throwing himself through the water at Lance, still not used to how much harder it was to move through.

Lance laughed, used to the water, and caught Keith easily in his arms. "Whoa there buddy, calm down.”

Keith struggled in Lance's grasp, furious at being held like a damsel in distress. "Let. Go. Of. Me," Keith punctuated each word with a punch to Lance's chest, beating him with oddly webbed fingers. "You can't steal my fire and then expect me to be calm about it," his eyes shot daggers at Lance, but Lance didn't even look uncomfortable. 

Lance playfully squeezed Keith tighter. "Sorry, fireling. I didn't take your fire-"

"I did," a sweet, melodic voice tinkled into the room through a curtain of seaweed on the opposite wall. Soon after the voice, followed a woman with sparkling turquoise eyes, skin the color of cocoa and a shiny curtain of long silvery white hair that fanned out in the water behind her. Surprisingly, the woman had legs, no tail, gills or fins, just two crescent shaped scales around her eyes to indicate that she wasn’t human. She had a kind of ageless beauty and when she took in Keith's position cradled in Lance's arms, the laugh lines around her eyes crinkled in a well practiced position that caused her eye scales to almost disappear. "Lance," she admonished. "Please put the boy down."

Lance mocked a pout, but did as he was told. "But I do so enjoy contact with a warm body," he winked at Keith which, much to Keith's chagrin caused Keith to blush profusely.

The silver haired woman shook her head amusedly at Lance then turned her attention back to Keith. "I'm afraid I haven't introduced myself yet. I'm Allura, and I see that you've already met my apprentice, Lance."

"I'm Keith, nice to meet you," Keith stuck out his hand to shake which Allura cast a scandalized look at.

"Why do you hold your hand, fireling?" she questioned obviously trying to keep her voice calm.

"It's called a handshake," Keith replied, aghast at the lack of manners found undersea. "I extend my hand to you and you take it like this, and shake it," he demonstrated with both of his hands. 

Allura shook her head at Keith's still extended hand as Lance shook with laughter behind them. "In my culture, and that of most mermaid species as well, taking someone's hand is a symbol of the beginning of a romantic relationship and is used throughout the relationship as a sign of affection."

"Oh," Keith blushed and dropped his hand quickly, causing Lance to double over with laughter heaving big choking breaths of water. "Anyway," Keith tried to brush off the awkward topic. "Why, exactly, did you have to remove my one connection to my brother almost entirely?”

At that, Lance sombered behind Allura, something that Keith had thought impossible. Allura became serious as well. "I'm afraid that it was necessary to take your fire out of your body if we wanted to save you," she explained. "Save for the small amount left in your heart, it is impossible for a waterbound and water sustained body to contain large amounts of flame. The two conflicting forces would tear each other apart, especially since merpeople are cold blooded. 

"When you were brought to me by Lance, I was able to make your body able to stay warm blooded so that you would be able to keep the tiny flame within your heart. Even now, you are so warm that you heat up the ocean around you just by being there, just like the furnaces that humans use in their homes. You relied on the flame so much that I fear removing it completely may have killed you, and even now you are greatly weakened without most of it in your body. You may feel that you are stronger than normal, but merpeople are about ten times as strong as a normal human being. The transition alone strengthened you greatly, but you only have about half the amount of strength as a normal mermaid right now. I know that transitioning is hard for everyone and I wouldn't want you being weakened to make it even worse, so I have come up with a solution." Allura pulled a tiny, kelp wrapped bottle on a chain from within the recesses of her flowing robes. "This," she handed the vial to Keith. "Is all the fire that I took from your body."

Keith reached out to take the vial, almost dropping it when he felt the surge of power that roared through his body when he touched it. "Thank you," he looked at Allura with respect and deep thanks, but there was still a question lingering in the back of his brain. "I do, really, appreciate this Allura, but I was wondering," he paused, trying not to appear rude and wondering the best way to continue on the path of politeness. 

"Yes," Allura looked at him encouragingly. "I understand that this is a lot to take in for you, ask all the questions you need."

"Ok," Keith replied still uncertain. He pondered for a bit and then decided to let his usually brash personality come back and take the reigns. "Well, you made it sound like you absolutely had to save me. Why? From what I can tell, most drowned sailors don't get rescued and turned into mermaids. What makes me so special."

Lance smirked and stepped in, making a big show of flourishing his tail, the blue-green scales glinting in the light from the hole in the top of the cave. "That's where I come in," he flashed a pearly white smile at Keith before launching into an explanation almost as long as Allura's, though much more animated. “The Galrans and Mer haven't always hated each other, stories say that they actually used to work quite closely. 

"As legend goes, in ancient days the Galra, Mer and Alteans, a race of ocean warlocks, formed a treaty to keep humans from polluting the oceans and killing out the species of the treaty. For years the treaty held and our two species held a firm and balanced hand over the ocean, we would dispose of trash and keep unworthy sailors and hunters off the sea, it was a strict and sometimes brutal reign but it was fair and just.

"Unfortunately, it was not in the nature of the Galrans to be peaceful. They had always planned to steal control of the sea and had tricked the Alteans and Merfolk into trusting them, only to get in close enough to wage war from the inside. They started by attacking the the island kingdom of Altea, taking out every single one, except for Allura and her mentor Coran who were placed in a very secure safehold and now work with us to stop the Galra.

“When the Galra attempted to strike down the Mer next, they found that it was impossible for them to enter the ocean with their malicious intent. To the extreme annoyance of the Galra, the same barriers that they had put up to help keep bad people out of the ocean also applied to bad storm spirits. Combine that with the fact that it was extremely difficult for the Galra to swim in the first place, being air and storm spirits, they were effectively blocked out, and have been ever since.” Lance sat proudly back on a chair fashioned of coral and looked to Allura questioningly, making it obvious that this history lesson was usually her job, not the blue tailed merman’s.

Allura nodded at Lance, as if reassuring him that he had done a good job, but Keith still felt unsatisfied with the answers that he had been given. “Right, fascinating story,” Keith stated, his voice ringing with an undertone of sarcasm. “But I still don’t understand what any of this has to do with me.” 

Lance’s pride faltered for just a second before he hitched a smirk back onto his face. “Patience fireling, I was just about to get to that.”

“Please don’t call me fireling, my name is Keith,” he hissed indignantly.

“Fine then, Keithy Boy,” Lance laughed. “We had to save you because, although you may not know it, you have the same goal as us; to defeat the Galra.”

“But I don’t want to defeat the Galra,” Keith protested in confusion. “I just want to rescue my brother.”

“And how do you plan on doing that without taking out at least a few Galra?” Lance asked smugly.

“I never said that I wouldn’t be prepared to take down a few Galra on the way to save my brother, but that doesn’t mean that I want to defeat them all.” Keith was defensive.

“And how do you know that, once you rescue him, he won’t want to fight back against his captors and torturers?”

“I never said that, you just-”

“Now boys, let’s calm down,” Allura interjected. “The point is, we rescue and turn those who have grudges against the Galra, most of the time those who want something from the Galra, in hopes that they will help us at least a small bit in restoring the storm spirits to their natural domain.”

Keith huffed a sigh, but consented, much more open to agreeing with Allura than he was to agreeing with Lance. 

“Excellent,” Allura clapped her hands. “Now, moving forward. You will be staying with Lance, Hunk, and Pidge. Lance, as you already know, is my apprentice. Hunk is Lance’s best friend, a great cook and also our specialist in helping you acclimate to the ocean. Pidge is our tech savvy most recent rescue who was saved two weeks ago and is also looking to find her brother who was also captured by the Galra, along with her father. They will be something of your team, and I hope that you come to view them as something of your family.”

Keith felt mixed emotions at his placement in Lance’s home. On the one hand, he did not think he could stand to accept so much hospitality from Lance and Hunk, he hated feeling indebted to other people. On the other hand, if he would have a housemate who shared the common experience of losing their brother to the Galra, maybe they could team up and help each other find their brothers.

Keith remained silent, still working through his feelings as Allura prattled on. “We collected what belongings were on you before we turned you, but there were very few that would be useful under the water. Along with the fire in the bottle around your neck, we found this strange silver pendant,” she held up a little silver pendant, the size of a penny, shaped like a compass.

Keith gave a cry of delight and eagerly took it from her outstretched palm. “I thought that this fell off as I drowned.” He took the pendant and strung it onto the same chord as the vial of fire, the familiar weight settling comfortingly onto his chest, a gift from Shiro that he never took off. 

Allura smiled, “Lance found it floating in the water next to you as you sank.” Keith gave Lance a look of gratitude, to which Lance replied with a dazzling smile, as Allura continued. “The only other thing that we thought you could use is this,” she held out a dagger with a glowing purple stone set into the hilt and a shining silver blade. This dagger, too was something that Keith had thought was lost to the sea and he took it silently, plucking a piece of floating seaweed from the water and wrapping it around his waist before tucking the dagger in. This small weapon was the only thing that he had of his mother and it was his most cherished possession. “Now,” Allura concluded. “It’s getting late. Lance will show you back to his house.”

Lance stood up and swam over to the cave door. “Bye Allura, I’ll see you tomorrow. C’mon Keithy Boy,” he laughed. “Let’s get you home.”

Keith turned to the sea witch, “Thank you so much Allura,” he paused not knowing how to continue. For years he had suffered dysphoria in his feminine body, struggling to raise funds for a top surgery. Now, with the exception of his tail, he had woken up with the body he had always dreamed of, but never gotten his hopes up for, and people to help him find Shiro. There were no words to express the gratitude that Keith felt, but he poured all his feeling into his next two words, hoping she would understand. “For everything.”

Allura smiled knowingly at him, of course she understood. “Of course, Keith. I look forward to hearing how you are doing at our weekly checkups.”

“Me too,” Keith smiled. With that, he turned and swum through the swinging curtain of seaweed after Lance.

***

Lance’s home, it turned out, was more of a cave than a house. “Here we are,” Lance stopped in front of a curtain of flowing purple seaweed in the side of a coral reef. 

They had been swimming for quite a while and Keith stopped abruptly in confusion., having thought they were going to keep going until they came upon a town. “This is it?”  
“What?” Lance laughed. “Did you think that merpeople lived in tidy little houses like humans do?”

“Well,” Keith sputtered. “Not exactly, but” he looked aghast. “You live in caves?”

Lance smiled, pushing aside the curtain for Keith. “Not just any caves, Keithy Boy. These are mer-caves.”

Keith gasped as they entered. Lance was right, this wasn’t an ordinary cave. Keith saw a large mainroom, filled with pieces of furniture fashioned out of coral, cushions and pillows made of some sea plant were thrown around absentmindedly. Fish skeletons, seastars and art made of seaweed and ocean plants decorated the rough, silvery walls. In the middle of the room sat a five foot tall crystal, glowing and pulsing with a blue light that glinted off of the metallic walls and cast eerily beautiful shadows around the room. Through a large opening, Keith saw a kitchen like space with three figures sitting around a coral table. When the figures saw Lance and Keith, they all rose and began swimming towards the two boys. 

“Lancekins!” came a shriek as a mergirl with yellow skin and a scaleless blue tail hurled herself at Lance.

“Nymes!” Lance replied, equally enthusiastically, embracing her and kissing her hard on the mouth. Behind the girl came two other merpeople, a short pale girl with a shimmering green tail and a stocky dark skinned boy with a gauzy yellow and orange tail. Keith and the boy exchanged an amused look, but when Keith made eye contact with the girl, a shock went through his entire body. 

Keith opened his mouth to say something, but was cut off by Lance. “Nymes,” he asked. “What are you doing here?”

The girl giggled, “I came to surprise you, of course. We’re going on a date.”

Lance smiled at her, and Keith could see from his expression that he loved her more than Keith had ever thought was possible. “Perfect,” he kissed her again, before turning to Keith. “Keith, this is my girlfriend Nyma. Nyma, this is my most recent rescue, Keith.”

Nyma smiled, “Nice to meet you, Keith.” She looked sappily at Lance. “You’re so brave, Lancekins, to be working against the Galra like this, you must be tired for spending so long rescuing Keith here. Why don’t we go get something to eat, then go watch the fights down at the arena.”

The green tailed girl made eye contact with Keith and made a gagging motion at the sappiness but Lance didn’t seem to notice. “Vrepit Sal’s for dinner?” Lance asked eagerly. 

“Where else?” Nyma laughed as the two exited the cave.

As soon as the couple was out of hearing range, Keith turned to the two merpeople still in the cave who were shaking with laughter. “Lancekins?” he asked incredulously, causing them to laugh even harder.

Finally the yellow tailed boy straightened, wiping tears of mirth from his eyes, although how one could distinguish tears from the salt water surrounding them, Keith did not know. “I’m Hunk Garrett,” the boy said, waving amiably. “And the one over here still dying over our ridiculous best friend is Pidge.” 

She straightened up halfway and gave a wave, “Hey.”

“Hi,” Keith felt comfortable around such obviously humorous people. “I’m Keith Kogane.”

Pidge suddenly stopped laughing and straightened up fully. “Keith?” she asked, looking at him as if he were her long lost brother, which in a way, Keith realized, he was.

“Katie?” his voice was barely more than a whisper. 

She smiled widely and rushed to embrace him, “Oh Keith it is you.” She hugged him tightly and he hugged back, ecstatic that she was here, and even under the ocean, he had a line to his past.

Hunk looked immensely confused. “Wait, hold on a second, just one minute,” he held up his hands. “You two know each other?”

Pidge laughed, “Yeah, we've been best friends since middle school.”

“Our brothers were both 7 years older than us, and we ended up spending a ton of time together because the two were nearly inseparable best friends,” Keith explained.

“Though, if you ask me, they were more than friends with all that time they spent together,” Pidge remarked slyly, before turning her attention to Keith. “But then, about a year after Keith’s brother disappeared, McMullet here packed up and left, not notifying anyone of his departure,” she gestured to Keith who touched his hair in offense.

Hunk nodded sagely. “Ah, the whole ‘noble young man rushes off to save his dying brother’ act, very similar to Pidge. Although, of course, Pidge is a girl.”

Keith turned an accusatory eye on the young, green tailed mermaid. “Speaking of your identity, when did you become a ‘Pidge?’” 

Pidge flushed lightly. “Well, Mullet, about one year after you disappeared, I was old enough to join the Garrison. You'll remember that Matt disappeared with Shiro. Well, with you gone and the Garrison having given up on both you and our brothers, I knew that I had to take things into my own hands and the only way to do it was to join the Garrison. It was quite simple really, all I had to do was create a fake identity for myself, hack into their control system and steal myself a high tech ship, which is basic deceit and only mid-level hacking. Unfortunately, I was set upon by a herd of angry Galra who tossed me overboard and I ended up here. I express myself as a girl here but I like Pidge better than Katie. And as for expression,” she looked him over appraisingly. “Look at you Mr. Manly.”

Keith blushed, looking down happily at his flat chest and well muscled body, the muscles a result of him working out constantly to remove some of the dysphoria that had come with his feminine form.

“Allura really can work miracles, can't she,” Hunk pointed out proudly.

*** 

Alone in his room that night, Keith explored his new body. He and Pidge had stayed up talking for hours, long past when Hunk had retired to bed, but now he was alone in a small room lit by a small glowing crystal. The blue light of the crystal cast shadows around the room and glinted off his red scales, making them appear purple. 

Keith first took stock of his new aquatic features. His tail was long and shimmering with bright scales in every shade imaginable of red, pink, orange and purple, with large red fins swishing at the ends. Keith's scales crept up the sides of his body and his underarms, fading into the gills on his neck. He had light pink webbing between his fingers and webbing beneath his arms as well. Scales ran up his back, accompanied by fins that allowed him to move swiftly and accurately through the water.

After his merfeatures, Keith absorbed his new humanoid upper half. He ran his fingers wonderingly over the flat muscled chest that felt so right on him. After years of struggling with his image, who knew that all he needed to do was to be thrown into the ocean by evil spirits to get the body that felt right on him, Keith smiled to himself.   
As he snuggled into the surprisingly comfortable coral bed, Keith felt truly content with himself for the first time in a very long while.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok, so sorry this took so long to update. I'm working on making my chapters better and longer which may result in more of a wait but will ultimately give you better content. This chapter in particular was delayed a bit more bc I was traveling a ton and bc of season 3. If anyone wants to dm me on my Instagram @/lailz._draws pls feel free, I need people to cry over it with me. 
> 
> Until next time faithful readers,
> 
> -Lailz


	3. Chapter 3

Keith had been in the aquatic household for almost two months and was finally settling into the strange environment, even beginning to enjoy himself. Although he found himself wishing to return to his human form and shake off the discomfort that came with being warm blooded and trapped under the ocean, he had gotten used to the quirks of the environment and found himself enjoying the company of all his housemates, even Lance although he was loathe to admit it. 

Pidge, with her familiarity and humorous attitude brought a sense of reassurance and normality to Keith’s new home that he was sure it wouldn’t have had without her; a piece of home in about the farthest thing from it. Hunk, with his ever abundant happiness and endless collection of strange sea recipes was the perfect housemate; always filling the glowing underwater cave with the scents of cooking food and the sounds of chatter. And then of course, there was Lance. Lance wasn’t around as much as the other two, due to his job, but when he was around, he made it his point to be the center of attention, joking and arrogant, he tended to annoy Keith more than make him laugh, although the mulleted wonder had cracked a smile or two on occasion at the sheer flamboyance of Lance. And then, of course, there was Nyma. Lance and Nyma, Nyma and Lance. The two were an inseparable force and were rarely seen without each other; Nyma waiting at the cave until Lance got off of work, chatting with Keith and Pidge about Earth culture, a topic on which she was very interested. Whenever Lance was at home, Nyma was too; Keith knew that the yellow skinner mermaid had her own home but it definitely didn’t seem like it. She ate dinner with them, went to parties and festivals with them and slept with Lance nearly every night. The two doted sappily on each other to a point that made the other housemates feel uncomfortable at times. At first, the relationship of the two merpeople had annoyed Keith to no end, but he had come to view it as Hunk and Pidge did, as a source of hilarity. And so things went in the convert household, until the fateful day that it no longer did.   
***

 

Lance and Hunk had been helping Keith and Pidge formulate a plan to save the two brothers of the changelings. Thanks to Keith's’ fire, they were extremely close to completing a fully formulated plan. Pidge and her genius technological mind was able to combine technology and magic to find the strain of Shiro’s fire inside Keith’s; easily accessible in the vial that Keith wore around his neck. Pidge isolated a bit of this strain and gave it to Lance who, in turn, took it to Allura and, under her guidance, created a tracking spell. With the spell in hand, they were easily able to find Shiro who, they assumed, would be kept in the same facility as Matt and Mr. Holt. 

That afternoon, Pidge, Keith and Hunk were sitting in the kitchen around a spread of dips that Hunk was experimenting with, waiting for Lance to get home. Nyma was unusually absent, on vacation to the exotic reefs with her family. Although this separation had caused Lance to be a bit more subdued, Keith was glad that he at least wouldn’t have to spend as much time in close proximity with the lovesick couple. The household group was working through some final logistics on how to break into the galra fortress, but Lance didn’t like to be excluded from planning so they normally waited until he got home to do any actual work. In their spare time, like today, Hunk enjoyed testing new recipes out on the two changelings. 

“This one’s my favorite,” Pidge pointed her spoon at a gooey purple dish. “It tastes kind of like peanut butter, but with a hint of pineapple too.”

“What’s peanut butter?” Hunk looked confused, having little knowledge of land foods, despite his endless repertoire of ocean foods.

Pidge clutched at her chest in mock pain, scandalized. “You’ve never heard of peanut butter?”

Keith shook his head, taking a bite of the yellow dip that tasted of apples, “You’re missing out dude, peanut butter is epic.” Then, struck by a thought, he mixed the yellow and purple pastes together and tried them, his face breaking into a slow grin. “Dude, you’ve got to try this,” he handed his spoon to Pidge.

The green mergirl took a bite and her entire face lit up. “Apples and peanut butter!” she cried excitedly. 

As Hunk watched in bemusement, the two changelings tried to replicate other land foods from Hunk’s odd collection of colored pastes. Their fun was cut off by a high and melodic voice floating in from the front of the cavern. “Honeyyyy I’m hoooommmmeeee,” Lance called jokingly, sweeping into the kitchen and placing an over exaggerated, airy kiss on Keith’s cheek, in a surprisingly good mood, considering the fact that Nyma was gone. 

As Keith’s face flamed up from the contact, Pidge doubled over with laughter. “You’re home early,” Hunk chuckled used to Lance’s eccentricities. 

“Well, Hunkerton, my good man,” Lance flourished a few pieces of the kelp that the mer used as currency. “I have been given a lunch break by my generous employer, Princess Allura, and the instructions to take you all out to lunch as a reward for all of our hard work.”

Pidge nudged Keith, “So that’s what’s causing the good mood.” Keith smirked, Lance always perked up around food, especially food from Vrepit Sal’s.

“I heard that little green bean,” Lance mock pouted. “Can’t I just be excited to to spend time with my favorite people.”

“You could,” Pidge agreed. “But I’m quite sure that you’re more excited for the food.”

Lance laughed, “You do have a point there my greenest of beans. Now come, minions, to Vrepit Sals!”

***

Keith could sense that something was wrong as soon as the quartet swam through the front door of the undersea diner. Normally the atmosphere inside was loud and bustling, but when they crossed the threshold, a uncomfortable quiet full of whispers and murmurs arose, save for a few conversations that continued, unaware of their presence. Lance, talking loudly with Pidge and Hunk didn’t notice but Keith, the always quiet and observant did. His eyes scanned the room and sitting in the corner was a sight that made his heart sink. 

Keith was about to suggest that they find dining somewhere else, when Sal, the owner of the establishment, came scuttling over on the legs of a giant mantis shrimp. Sal was a big man, with purple skin, the upper half of a man and the lower half of a shrimp, a bit like a centaur. “Ah, my favorite customers,” he forced a smile, eyes flicking around nervously. It was obvious that he and Keith had seen the same thing and were both trying to keep Lance from seeing it as well. “May I interest you all in our newly opened outdoor seating.”

“Hmm,” Lance pondered. “Nah, I like the ambiance in here, you know?”

Keith, who didn’t normally express an opinion on this type of thing spoke up, surprising everyone, “I think we should sit outside, it would provide us with a new experience. Besides, I enjoy eating out in the open, don’t you Pidge? It reminds me of being back on land. You know, with the peanut butter and the open air cafes back in Asterion, where we grew up. Almost like being home…” Keith knew he was rambling but he couldn’t help it, he had to keep Lance distracted. At Pidge’s quizzical look, he gave a subtle nod in the direction of the back corner. 

Pidge’s eyes widened in understanding and she hastily jumped onto Keith’s train of thought, nudging Hunk who also saw and moved to block the view of the cafe from Lance’s eyesight with his large mass. “Ah yeah,” Pidge tried to continue what Keith had been saying, a devilish look coming into her eyes. “The two of us are still, um acclimating. Yes, we are acclimating and any taste of, um, of our old home is very helpful to us. Yes, it is helpful, especially today because last night,” she cast a wicked grin at Keith. “Especially when last night, Keith came to my room close to tears, telling me how homesick he is and how much he um, how much he wishes that he could just go home-”

Keith cut her off, “Yep, I was just so close to tears because of how much I miss my home and my brothers, and it just, it really triggered Pidge’s feminine sensitivities, ow!” He paused to rub at his side as Pidge jabbed her bony little elbow into his ribs, before vigilantly continuing his speech. “Yep, and then we were sitting in her room with our um, with our land artifacts, yes, those nice land artifacts, and poor little Pidge was sobbing her eyes out and I was barely containing myself from tears. And so because we are terribly homesick,” Keith concluded. “We simply must use the outdoor seating.”

Lance cast the two a suspicious look. “Alright, we can sit outside, but I have to go to the bathroom first, excuse me Hunk.”

Hunk froze, “I’m afraid I can’t let you go.”

“And why not exactly?” Lance quirked an eyebrow at his best friend. 

“Because um,” Hunk spluttered. “Because I’ve frozen up.”

“You’re all acting rather strange today,” Lance remarked, his eyes scanning the room behind Hunk. “It’s almost as if you’re hiding someth…” His voice trailed off and his face went very frighteningly blank. “Oh.” That single word was so small and yet so full of emotion, as Lance said it, all the positive energy left his body, the tiny word carrying a tidal wave of heartbreak and betrayal. For, in the corner sat Nyma, wrapped around a merboy with purple skin and blue spots, a merboy whom she was definitely kissing, who was certainly not related to her and, who most definitely was not Lance. 

A fire sprang up in the eyes of the blue mermaid, rage blazing in his pupils. “Lance,” Keith put his hand on Lance’s arm, trying to hold him back. 

“Get off of me, Keith,” Lance spat, shoving Keith aside and swimming over to the far corner before any of his friends could stop him. The entire restaurant had gone silent, but Nyma and her companion continued to suck face until they heard Lance’s voice. “Nyma,” he hissed, in a tone more fierce than Keith had thought possible from full hearted and happy Lance. She looked up at him, blue eyes widening in shock.

The mermaid quickly stood up, taking Lance’s hands in her own, “Lance, I was going to tell you, I really was, I just-”

“You just, what, Nyma?” Lance’s voice was full of a quiet fury as he pushed her gently but firmly away from him. 

“I just got bored, you know?” she asked genuinely, giving him a playful smile, that he did not return.

“You, got bored?” he repeated his voice growing ever more dangerous as the conversation went further and further off track. 

“Yeah,” she smiled and laughed, as if really not getting what was upsetting Lance so much. “Yeah, I met Rolo here in the exotic reefs, and I figured that since you and I aren’t exclusively dating, that I could take him home, have a weekend fling while I was supposed to be at the great reefs, and you would never need know. But it’s ok, you can have me back right now if you want.” The silence that filled the restaurant at this proclamation was eery.

Lance’s face blazed with incredulous anger. “‘Not exclusively dating,’” he repeated, his voice rising and ringing throughout the silent space as he lost control of his so carefully contained temper. “‘Not exclusively dating?’ We have been together for two years now, Nyma. Two years. And somehow you think that I’ve been running off behind your back with as many people as I now know that you’ve been running off behind mine with. Why would you even think that?”

“It’s ok if you have been Lancekins,” Nyma said sympathetically. “I know what a flirtatious person you are, so I figured you must be with other people, and I thought that it would be ok if I was with other people too.”

Lance’s voice had dropped to the angry almost whisper of his original confrontation and every aspect of his body displayed pure and utter rage. “Yes, Nyma, I am a flirty person but that’s just who I am, it doesn’t mean that I’m actually dating anyone else. Only the filthiest, scummiest, dirtiest, most horrible pit dwellers would-” he cut himself off, shaking his head and turning from Nyma with finality. “You can keep your Rolo, Nyma. We’re done.” With that, he sped out of the restaurant and into the afternoon, not even pausing to wait for the rest of his group. 

*** 

It was late at night when Lance returned to the cavern. The Balmeran crystal was flickering dimly, as it did when it felt that the inhabitants of it’s cave should be asleep, and Keith sat in the living room, carving a pendant out of coral with his knife and waiting for the blue mermaid to return safely. Hunk and Pidge had retired to bed long ago but Keith had volunteered to wait up for Lance who, Hunk had assured him, would come back. As the hours had crept past midnight and into the early morning, Keith had started to doubt his yellow friend’s assurances. The red mermaid was just cleaning up after himself, wrapping up his knife and stringing the pendant onto a length of vine, when, sure enough, Lance swam through the door looking beat up, and bruised, shivering down to the tip of his tail. 

“Lance,” Keith breathed. “What happened to you.”

Lance scowled, wincing in pain. “Oh you know, just my usual break-up treatment. Get drunk, swim to the depths and pick a fight with the biggest looking monster down there,” he winced again settling himself gingerly down onto the couch.

“Hunk figured as much, he left supplies,” Keith said, bringing over a plate of small sandwich like things along with mossy bandages and a balm of Allura’s concoction. As Lance reached for a sandwich, Keith began slathering the bandages with balm and placing one over each cut and bruise, Lance cringed as each bandage touched him, but let out a satisfied sigh a moment after, as the balm worked it’s magic. “This one is going to hurt the most,” Keith told Lance, pointing to a large gash that cut across the front of Lance’s tail. 

Lance braced himself against the couch, and nodded, “I’m ready.”

Keith scooped the salve onto his fingers this time, rather than onto the bandage and began working it into the wound. Just as his father did when he was little and injured, Keith began singing softly to take Lance’s mind off of the pain, a song from his father’s homeland.

Just as there are many stars in the clear sky,  
There are also many dreams in our heart.

Lance thrashed and cried out as Keith dipped his balm covered fingers into the gash.

There, over there that mountain is Baekdu Mountain,  
Where, even in the middle of winter days, flowers bloom.

As Keith worked through the wound, his voice filled the cavern, made even sweeter by the acoustics of being underwater and Lance began to calm down.

Look on me! Look on me! Look on me!  
In midwinter, when you see a flower, please think of me!  
Ari-arirang! Ssuri-Ssurirang! Arariga nanne!  
O'er Arirang Pass I long to cross today.  
Moonkyung weak Bird has too many curves  
Winding up, winding down, in tears I go.  
Carry me, carry me, carry me and go!  
When flowers bloom in Hanyang, carry me and go. 

Although the song was not finished, Keith trailed off as he saw Lance’s eyelids drooping and his head nodding forward. He smiled to himself at the sight of the blue merboy at peace, and tied a final large bandage around the gash in Lance’s hand. As Keith rose to leave, Lance’s hand shot out and grabbed his wrist. “Your song was beautiful,” he mumbled. “What was it?”

“Jeongseon Arirang,” Keith replied gently. “It’s from my father’s homeland.”

He began to pull away but Lance gripped his wrist more tightly. “You’re so warm,” he murmured, beginning to lose consciousness. “Please stay, it is always so cold down here.”

“Of course,” Keith smiled, curling up besides the sleeping blue mermaid, letting his heat pass to Lance’s skin, and savoring in the comfortable cool feel of Lance’s body against his.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alrighty guysss, this is where it starts getting gayyyy. I've been planning this chapter for a long time so it was super fun to write. On another note, I just stated high school so I think it's important to say that idk when I'll be able to post next bc I need to make sure my grades are on track and that I'm settled into a healthy routine, before I focus on this. Never fear tho, I'm sure Ill be updating again soon. 
> 
> As always, please feel free to dm me on my insta acc @/lailz._draws, my arms are open for anything you want to talk about and I promise I don't bite.
> 
> Until next time my guys, 
> 
> -Lailz


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW- Mentions of Depression

It was as if something had broken inside Lance when he had seen Nyma and Rolo entwined in the diner booth at Vrepit Sal’s. He tried to keep up a positive facade, still joking and teasing all of his housemates, but they could all see through his thin facade. They had all seen his fallen face when he thought they weren’t looking, the thin scars across his tail that kept appearing, marks of his ever increasing habit to go out and pick fights. His appetite had drastically decreased, and his once well proportioned body, although still strong and muscular, was becoming despairingly thin, to the point where, when he stretched, his ribs were visible, poking through the skin on his chest. Hunk kept pressuring him to eat, whipping up his favorite foods and even returning to Mama McClain to bring back home cooked meals for her son, but Lance always politely refused the food.

At last, the situation became so bad, with Lance sometimes disappearing for days at a time, that Hunk called a household meeting. “Now,” he began to the two other anxious merpeople sitting in front of him, concern glinting in his warm brown eyes. “You all know that we’re gathered here to discuss Lance’s … situation … and how we should deal with it. I know that we’ve all been trying to show support for him and to do whatever we can to help, but none of it seems to be working. And, of course, you both already know all of this, but here is the real problem that we’re facing. This morning, Allura came by to talk to me, and apparently Lace’s depression is extending into his work. He isn’t putting his best effort in, hasn’t been making the patients feel as comfortable as they used to feel, and has been messing up his assignments at an almost consistent rate. Allura has tried to work through this with him, but he won’t accept her help. She says that if he doesn’t pull himself together soon, she’ll have to look elsewhere for an apprentice.” Hunk looked down in defeat, a sigh pushing through his lips as his palms rubbed tiredly at his eyes. “I know that it isn’t our responsibility what Lance does with his life but…” he trailed off sadly.

“He’s done so much for us all, it would be ungrateful to try to help him out of this,” Pidge finished Hunk’s thought. 

“Exactly,” Hunk smiled tiredly at her. “But what should we do?”

The whole time, Keith had been sitting and staring at the floor with a deep scowl on his face. “I’ll talk to him,” he mumbled.

“Uhm, no offense Mullet,” Pidge said tentatively. “But haven’t we all tried talking to him already?”

Keith quirked an eyebrow at her for the nickname and smiled slightly. “Uhm, no offense Pidgeon, but you two have already tried your things and neither of them have seemed to work, sorry.” He looked apologetically at the two sitting across from him. 

Pidge glowered but gave a resigned nod. Hunk just shrugged, “Harsh, but it’s true. You do you man.”

Keith smiled. “Thanks guys. Please trust me on this.”

“Of course we trust you, Mullet,” Pidge conceded punching him on the arm.

***

Although the others in the household had seen some of what was becoming of Lance, Keith had seen the worst of it. Lance had taken to disappearing after dinner, retreating to the depths and the fighting rings, always winning, coming home in the middle of the night, drunk, cut up and bruised with pouches full of coins jingling around his hips. Keith always waited up for him, his insomnia holding him in consciousness into the early morning. Every night Lance would go out and, every night, Keith would stay awake for him, fixing him up when he got home, applying bandages, feeding snacks and singing, always singing. It hadn’t taken long for Keith to realize how much his singing calmed Lance down and, although he was quite self conscious about his voice, he had started singing for Lance as much as possible, taking pleasure in the comfort that it brought to the distraught blue merman. Lance had told him that his music was the only solace he had in the world and, on nights like this one, Keith felt inclined to believe him. 

The night after the meeting in which Keith had promised to talk to Lance, the blue mermaid stumbled through the door of the cavern, worse off than most nights. Amidst the large amount of smaller cuts and bruises that crisscrossed Lance’s body, ran two large and frightening gashes; one running from his left shoulder blade, diagonally down his back to the base of his right hip, slicing his back fin in half, the second running from just beneath his right eye to the back of his neck. Although the merman’s lavender blood had clotted over the wounds, they still dripped at the corners, leaking shimmering trails down his blue fins and tanned skins. 

As soon as he passed through the swinging kelp threshold of the cave, Lance collapsed heavily against the wall, groaning, one of his wounds reopening. “Lance!” Keith gasped, rushing over to scoop him up and retreating to the couch where he cradled the blue merman tenderly in his arms. Lance was deteriorating, Keith could see it more clearly than ever, his body was merely a mass of skin stretched loosely over lean muscles and protruding bones, no mass in between. It was a truly depressing sight, the once well toned Lance, wasted to a pile of scale and bone. 

Keith attended to Lance’s wounds as he usually did, humming softly as he applied poultices and bandages, massaging warm circles into the cold blooded boy’s back. Despite this normalcy, Keith hesitated when it came time to carry a sleepy and relaxed lance back to bed. “Lance,” he said, hoisting the blue merman off of his lap and into a seated position next to him. “Lance, you can’t go on like this.”

Lance’s eyes flew open and narrowed angrily at Keith. “I would watch it Kogane,” he snarled. “What I do with myself and my evenings is none of your business.”

“None of my business is it?” Keith returned coldly, all trace of compassion gone from his eyes. “Even though I’m the one who stays up every night and patches you up every night? Even though I’m the one who keeps your secrets from the others, who tells them that you were better than you are because I know that neither of us could bear to break their hearts? Even though without me you would probably be dead right now?” 

“Ah yes,” Lance fired back, his voice dripping with sarcasm. “Way to make yourself sound heroic, and me pathetic Kogane. Because Triton only knows I totally asked you to stay up and wait for me every night and do this all for me when, in reality, I didn’t. We all know that the only reason you’re still here is because you have a crush on me and are too pathetic to express it outright.” 

Lance regretted his last sentence as soon as it was out of his mouth, but it was too late. Keith’s expression hardened and the water around him began to boil with his anger, his eyes blazing with literal spheres of fire as he rose to tower over the seated and frail blue mermaid. “Don’t flatter yourself you complete egotistical ass. I am here, because I am a genuinely good person who cares about the wellbeing of the person who saved him from drowning and gave him a second chance about saving his brother yes, but I am not only here for you. I am here because I have insomnia and would be awake anyway, so why not be a decent half human being? I am here because I admire and love Pidge and Hunk and don’t want them to worry too much about you because God knows that you don’t seem to care. I am here because I can’t stand to see someone else in pain and will do everything within my power to ease that suffering. 

“But it is not only that. I am here because I was you once Lance. I too struggled with my image and my body and myself, and I too thought I was worthless at one point. I harmed myself and others around me because I was born in the wrong body and was rejected for it time after time after time. I self destructed, and dragged others down with me, and my brother was always there with me, seeing me at my worst and helping me through it, because he had suffered his own depression when he lost his arm. I am here because I saw something break inside of you when Nyma dumped you and I could see how you would react. I am here because we all need someone with shared experiences and feelings to help us when we are at our worst and, when Shiro was helping me fight my depression, I swore I would be that figure to anyone who needed it. So no, Lance, whatever my romantic feelings may be towards you, I am not here for them. I am here to keep you from ruining yourself and from dragging others down with you.” Keith finished, the water around him returning to it’s normal temperature, and he sank back onto the sofa. 

Lance looked down at his hands, silvery tears leaking from the corners of his eyes. “I’m so sorry,” he whispered. “How can I fix it.”

Keith smiled softly at the blue mermaid. “Well, recovery is different for everyone,” Keith told him. “But I have some ideas.” As Keith spoke, detailing ways that he had found to cope with his depression, and ways that Shiro and others has used, Lance began to nod off again, the eventfulness of the night catching up with him. He finally gave up on consciousness and curled up with his head in Keith’s lap. Keith, smiled, looking down at Lance and felt his stomach do a complicated twist. Keith hadn’t even considered his feelings for Lance before that night, but a horrible sense of affection settled over him, and he suspected that Lance may be right in his assumptions.

*** 

The very next day, the two boys threw themselves right into Lance’s recovery, although recovery is never black and white, Keith first tried a strategy that had worked well on one of the girls in his depression therapy group who had a similar problem to Lance; staying distracted. Keith’s plan was to keep Lance as busy as possible, and it actually worked surprisingly well. 

In the mornings, Lance would train with Keith; Lance trying to get his strength back up and Keith working on making himself less dependant on the fire that hung in a bottle around his neck. After waking up early and training for three hours, Hunk would make them all a balanced meal which they would eat and discuss new possible recipes, Pidge and Keith amusing the two native mermen by coming up with combinations similar to earth foods and trying to describe them to a bemused Lance and Hunk. After brunch, Lance and Hunk would go to help Allura in her apothecary, while Pidge and Keith worked on the Shiro-Tracking device back in the mer cave, which Keith and Pidge had taken to calling the crib, a joke that went far over Lance and Hunk’s heads. In the evenings, the small family’s routine rotated between working on the Shiro-Tracker, formulating a plan on rescuing Shatt and, by far the most entertaining, trying to educate Lance and Hunk on meme culture.

Tonight was a meme culture night, and by far, one of the most ridiculous yet, as Pidge was going into full Italian mode to explain what she called her “richly memeful culture and ancestry.”

“So the human’s have a species that are of the Italy, and they… do everything with their fingers pinched together?” Hunk asked in confusion, Lance behind him, frowning at his own hands in confusion as he contorted them into an assortment of random positions.

Pidge giggled, “No, like this,” she assumed a bad Italian accent and pinched her fingers together. “There ees too much sawce on ziz pizza.”  
When Hunk and Lance became even more confused, Keith sighed in exasperation, pushing himself off of the the couch and swishing upright in front of them all. He pinched his fingers together, tucked a bit of mullet over his lip like a mustache and assumed an expert accent, before beginning to speak and flourish his hands wildly. “Mama mia, dat is a spicy meatabala. No Luigi, don’t tell a me, Mario, that you didn’t put any pepper in them. Theese meatabalas are too spicee for a me, Mario.” Keith smirked, crossing his arms and sinking back into the sofa as Hunk and Lance gaped at him in astonished horror and Pidge doubled over with laughter. 

“Just wait until I tell Shiro about that wonderful display of memeness,” Pidge gasped, sides heaving with laughter.

Keith gave her a self satisfied look. “Unfortunately for you, Shiro will never believe you without proof.”

“Um, Hunk and Lance,”Pidge retorted. 

“The poor uneducated fish don’t understand what just happened, let alone enough to back you up.”

“Why you little,” Pidge gasped, swimming for him and launching an attempted assault, which Keith easily deflected, laughing. 

Everything was going great until Lance decided to join in. “Don’t you worry my little green bean, I shall take on this red foe for you.”

“Alright buddy,” Pidge snorted at Lance’s mock chivalry. “Good luck with that.”

Suddenly, to his immense embarrassment, Keith found himself locked in an underwater wrestling match with Lance. Despite his lean body, the training had been taking effect, and Lance was surprisingly strong as he grappled with Keith, their tails twining as their fists pummeled each other. Keith didn’t know how long this exchange lasted but, in the end, his strength won out, and he found himself pinning Lance against the wall. They were incredibly close, and Keith felt the water heating up around him as his pulse quickened and his eyes locked on the sparkling blue ones of the boy trapped beneath him. Lance leaned forward and, as if subconscious, Keith began to lean in as well. 

Their lips were an inch apart when Keith mentally slapped himself, twirling lightly away from Lance, with a hold on the blue boy’s arm, and flinging him lightly into the lap of a stunned Hunk. He laughed lightly and smirked at the other occupants of the room. “I guess I’m unbeatable.”

Lance glowered, “More like unreachable,” he stood with a huff. “C’mon Hunk, let’s go to bed.”

Hunk cast a pitying look back at Keith as the two native mer exited the main cavern, leaving only Keith and Pidge.

***

“Dude what the actual flying fuck was that?” Pidge shouted once Lance and Hunk were out of earshot.

“I’m not sure that I know what you mean.” Keith regarded her coolly from his spot on the sofa.

“You know,” Pidge was aghast. “The boy who you obviously like was about to kiss you,” she paused and shook her head before whispering, “and you fling him into another boy’s lap?”

“I do not like him,” Keith blustered, flushing. “I merely care for him as a person. And besides,” Keith continued, smirking. “Even if I did like him, then would not have been the correct time. He should just feel lucky that I didn’t have my knife on me.”

Pidge threw up her arms in exasperation, flopping onto the couch next to Keith. “Jesus Christ Mullet, why can’t you just-“

But whatever Keith couldn’t just do, he never found out, for at that moment, the water in the corner of the room began to boil and glow with a pulsing orange light. The two changelings rushed over to the Shiro-Tracker and Pidge’s face lit up with excitement. “It’s the Galra,” she breathed. “They’re approaching quickly. And they have our brothers.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright my dudes, I’m legit so sorry I didn’t update earlier, but high school is a bitch and I haven’t had the time since then. But it’s almost October which means inktober which means that even if I’m not active on here, I’ll be active on my insta @lailzdraws, so pls come talk to me if you want.  
> Until the next chapter my guys  
> -Lailz


	5. Chapter 5

In preparation for Shiro’s rescue, the four housemates had moved to Allura’s dwelling, the old Altean fortress. The inside was full of the advanced technology that the Alteans had created during their long and prosperous reign, and it was all at the disposal of the housemates and their crew. Their crew, as it turned out, was more of a army than a small crew. Keith had heard Lance and Hunk discussing calling on townspeople in the weeks leading up to this night, but he hadn’t realized how many there would be. Hundreds of merfolk streamed through the fortress and into the armory, equipping themselves eagerly. Those who had been alive during the GalrAltea war assisted the younger generations with their weapons, chattering eagerly with their old comrades, excited by the promise of battle and ready to restore peace to the ocean. 

Keith drifted dazedly through the crowd with Hunk who chatted excitedly with almost everyone he met, introducing Keith who would smile politely and make conversation, but who itched to get out and rescue his brother. The fire that now sat in a vial around his neck burned hot against his skin through the protective wrapping. It didn’t help matters that Lance had been avoiding him all night, something which Hunk had caught onto very quickly. All of this pointless conversations seemed to be Hunk’s way of distracting Keith from Lance’s avoidance. It wasn’t helping, but the happy yellow merman seemed to be the only person who Keith couldn’t snub, it seemed like kicking a puppy. As he desperately searched the room for a way to get out of the talk of the weather, Keith’s eye caught on a young girl floating in the corner whose tan skin and sea green tail seemed to blend her into the scenery and whose pale blue eyes seemed to absorb everything in sight. Muttering an excuse to Hunk, Keith swam towards the girl, wondering what one so young was doing in this huge fortress full of warriors. 

For a moment, taking in her razor sharp fins, Keith wondered if this had been a bad idea, but then she noticed him and turned her head expectantly in his direction. Keith steeled himself and went up to her, carefully remembering not to shake her hand, as it was considered rude among the merpeople. “Hi,” he said with a smile. “I’m Keith, what’s your name?”

“Oh, I know who you are,” the girl replied arily, giving no disclosure to her own identity. “Lance has told me all about you, and it’s your brother that all this fuss about, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, Shiro is my bro- wait,” Keith paused and looked at the girl scrutinously. “Did you say Lance?”

“Oh yes,” she replied, giving him a familiar blinding smile. “You’re all he ever talks about anymore. He’ll come home all depressed and of course we coax him to eat and to talk but he never does. It’s only when Maman mentions his work, and he’ll start talking about it, and then you, and his whole face lights up. He thinks we don’t see the way he gets when he talks about you, but we do.”

“Oh really,” Keith said, caught off guard. “How interesting. And I assume you must be one of his sisters?”  
“The youngest,” she replied, still not divulging her name. “Maman and the others didn’t want me to come, but I have a knack for observation, and I convinced them to allow me to accompany them.” Again she flashed that smile, so similar to Lance’s, and Keith felt his heart pang. “And look, here he comes now, probably thinks I’m going to elope with you or something.” She rolled her eyes.

Keith turned to face Lance and his heart did a flip inside his chest. Lance was with Pidge and they had both been equipped with high tech Altean armour. While Pidge’s armour made her look fierce and tough, Lance’s enhanced his beauty. He wore a thin shimmering tunic of ultra fine chain mail that hugged his body, making him appear to shimmer with an ethereal beauty that looked beautifully out of place under water. His helm sat upon his chestnut curls and ran down his back, encasing each of the fins on his back in a shimmering, wickedly sharp blade. In his hands, he held a trident that’s blades matched the ones on his back. He was dangerous, but beautiful. 

Keith knew that he had only been staring for a second, but it felt like longer, and Lance continued to ignore him. “There you are Adelana,” he fussed. “Maman has been worried sick, c’mon, let’s get you to the rest of the family, we don’t want you getting swept up in the tide of battle.”

Adelana looked over her shoulder at Keith and rolled her eyes as if to say, I told you so. Keith managed a smile, but couldn’t help feeling disappointed at Lance’s lack of interest in him. Pidge noticed the forlorn expression on his face and smiled sympathetically. “It’ll wear off eventually, don’t worry,” she squeezed his shoulder in a rare gesture of comfort. Now c’mon, don’t think you’re off the hook for badass fish people armour.” Keith laughed, and let her lead him away.

***

“Now Keith,” Allura was explaining to him, in a secluded corner of the fortress, surrounded by twenty or so merpeople wearing strange purple hoods. “I hope you don’t mind but, with you being a fireling, I decided to run some tests on your blood. As you may or may not know, a fireling is someone who is half Galra. Although this is not necessarily rare, what with Galra and merpeople affairs, it is exceedingly rare for a Galra to pair with a human. This would require an extreme human tolerance, something which is extremely rare in Galra. The prospect of something like this was too fascinating not to look into, please forgive my saying so. Anyway, what I did discover, is that your mother was a member of the Blade of Marmora, an organization of Galra and partial Galra beings who are attempting to bring down the Galra Empire. Most of the time, members don’t leave their membership to their children, so I thought nothing of your mother’s occupation, but then I remembered your knife, you do have it on you?”

Keith reeled under the weight of all the information that he had just received but he managed a weak smile and pulled the knife from his sheath, displaying it to the audience. “Of course I have it,” he replied. “I never go anywhere without it.”

A murmuring erupted around the circle of blade members until an extremely tall one, likely the leader, swam forward, pulling down his hood to reveal a purple face with ridges of red scales above the eyes. “I am Kolivan,” spoke the man. “Leader of the Blade of Marmora. I knew your mother. She was one of our top spies and you would be hard pressed to find a braver woman of any species. We are all firelings or full galra beings in this organization, and it will be our honor to rescue your fireling brother and his human friend. We request that you consider becoming a member of the Blade once this battle has passed. Whatever your answer may be, we will send you and your comrades into battle with our aqua unit and our unit with, erm, legs, will be tasked with rescuing your family. You will, of course, be provided with blade armour and attire for this battle.”

Keith was dazed and shocked by all of this new information, but he nodded, remembering his manners from the Garrison. “I would be honored to fight with such a noble organization, and I’m sure my comrades will feel the same way.”

***

His comrades did not feel the same way. 

“What do you mean they’re going in instead of us?” exploded Lance, speaking to Keith for the first time that day. Although he had, to Keith’s satisfaction, blushed at the sight of Keith’s dark, tight fitting Blade uniform with it’s glowing scales and masked hood, that embarrassment had been pushed away by his anger.

“We merpeople have our own specialized ways of fighting, and we don’t need some random dudes who showed up out of the blue to help us,” he waved his trident around angrily.

“Guys I-” Keith tried, but Pidge cut him off.

“Yeah, and what about our plan?” she asked sulkily. “It’s our brothers, not theirs, and we’ve been planning for months.”

“Well, if you would just let me-” Keith made another attempt, only to be interrupted by Lance.

“You know what Keith, as it seems obvious that you’re only in this for your brother and don’t even care about the rest of us and our feelings, why don’t you just go off and work with the Blade, since they’re so much better than us. We’re obviously no more than sea slugs to you.” With that he turned his back and made to swim away, but was stopped by Keith swimming rapidly in front of him and placing his hands gently on Lance’s chest, despite the anger blazing in both of their eyes. 

“Lance Andréa McClain, don’t you dare take that tone with me,” Keith knew he sounded like a middle aged mother, but he forged on. “Don’t you think I’d be sticking exactly to our plan if I thought it would turn out best for us? Because I would, one of those being rescued is my brother, in case you forgot. The thing is Lance, we don’t have legs, and the prisons are out of the water. I know we had accounted for it, but that part of the plan is sketchy at best. Now, we know that we have trained intelligencers and rescuers, with legs, who are working on it, and the Blade has spies on the inside. I know you don’t like them working with us, I don’t necessarily like it either, but they’re my blood.” Keith removed his hands from Lances chest and took the blue merman’s hands in his own, pushing back his hood so that their eyes would lock. “I love our little group of four, Lance, and I wish we could do this our own way, but we both know that this is the safest route of action with the highest probability of success, so I am going to work with the balde to see it through to completion.”

Their noses were centimeters apart and Lance looked shocked. “Keith I-”

“Come on,” Keith drew his hood down and activated his mask, pulling away. “It’s time to go.”

Lance sat there looking completely shocked as Keith swam away towards the ranks of merpeople and blade members who were exiting the fortress. “Did you guys see what just happened,” Lance asked. “Or was that just me?”

“It definitely happened alright buddy, that courtship handhold may have been one of the most intense I’ve ever seen” Hunk replied sympathetically. 

“Yeah, and even without the weird mermaid romancey hand thingy, that eye lock was like something out of fucking Love Actually,” Pidge agreed. “I got goosebumps.”

“And he just swam away in his obnoxiously hot cult outfit like it was nothing!” Lance whined loudly, making heads turn in the crowd.

“I know, I know buddy,” Hunk sympathized, gently taking Lance’s arm and leading him away, Pidge swimming behind smirking demonically. 

***

Keith was in the heat of battle, trying to keep up with Kolivan’s orders while his mind raced with excitement at the prospect of seeing his brother again. 

Matt and Shiro had been rescued early on, but the Galra discovered the two boys missing and had begun to launch deep sea missiles into the ocean. The troops had been ordered to do out and bring down the Galra fleets to avoid the underwater city being wrecked. The Blade of Marmora and Lance’s family had been sent out together, creating a storm of blue and purple figures doing a lethal dance around a heavily armed warship. Over and over, glowing missiles, arrows and spears plunged into the water around the merpeople, each one a bearer of possible death. The merpeople danced amidst the plunging weapons, throwing bombs and spears at the massive vessel of destruction. 

Keith and a few other BOM members had been tasked with slicing open the hull, digging their glowing Galra made blades into the ship. The warship was built to withstand the Altean weapons that the merpeople were using, but not the same materials that it was crafted of. Because of this, Keith’s dagger cut through the hull like butter, and every slice made by he and his team members sank the hull further down into the ocean. Suddenly, with a great creaking and groaning of metal, the warship gave in, sinking slowly through the water, sending up great clouds of bubbles, bodies of Galra warriors floating to the surface.

A great cheer went up among the amassed merfolk. Keith grinned happily, looking for Lance to share the victory with. To his dismay, Lance was nowhere to be found. Keith looked around frantically for Lance’s shimmering mesh suit, only to see something bluish glinting near the ocean floor, sinking through the depths. Keith dove, swimming past debris and sea life, until he reached it and his heart sank.

“No, no, no, please.” It was Lance with a spear sticking out of his side. His eyes were closed and he was sinking through the water without enough strength to swim for help. Keith’s chest constricted at the sight, and he rushed to cradle the boy in his arms. Keith knew that it was too far down for him to carry Lance back up to the Altean fortress by himself, and Lance would die soon if he didn’t receive medical attention as soon as possible. 

Knowing this, Keith swam them over to a ledge in the coral and pressed his transmitter, signaling the Blade of Marmora that assistance was needed. With this done, Keith pulled out his dagger and began to expertly cut the spear from Lance’s body. Lance gasped at the pain of the knife in his side and his eyes fluttered open. “Keith?” he gasped in surprise.

“Shh, love, I need to concentrate,” Keith replied soothingly, his brow furrowed. The spear had gone in deep, but Keith could see that it was poisoned and had to come out. Lance’s breath was coming in short, pained bursts through his gills and Keith looked up in concern. “Lance, love, can you take deep breaths for me please, it will make this easier for both of us. Lance’s breathing slowed down as Keith began singing softly, his voice buttering up the spear and working as an anesthetic as he carefully pulled the spear out of Lance’s side. 

Despite the spear being gone from Lance’s side, the poison was still spreading through his body and making him drowsy. “Lance,” Keith’s voice was alarmed as he pulled a syringe from the medical kit he always kept in his hip pouch and filled it with an antivenom. “I need you to stay awake.” He plunged the syringe into Lance’s side, letting his body fill with the anti venom. Keith quickly bandaged the wounds with seaweed and Allura’s healing balm.

“I’m just so tired Keith,” Lance sighed. “Can I sleep now.”

“No, love,” Keith replied, drawing Lance into his arms and placing a gentle kiss on his forehead. “You must stay awake if you wish to survive.”

“Keith?” 

“Yes, love?” 

“I want you to kiss me.”

Keith felt a wave of shock wash over him at Lance’s words, before a grin spread across his face and he drew the other boy’s lips up to meet his. As the warm and cold lips met, time melted away and there were only the two of them, entwined on the floor of the ocean, clinging desperately to each other to survive until help came.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alrighty guys, here's my update. I'm sorry it took me such a long time to publish, but I hope to have another one up by the end of January, if not by the end of break. During the construction of this chapter, it occurred to me that mermaids could kiss eachother for an infinite amount of time without stopping to breathe since they breathe out of gills which are in their necks. I'm just sayin'. 
> 
> Anyway, I hope you all had great holidays.
> 
> Happy New Year!
> 
> -Lailz


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